Blogging Exodus 6:1-13, 28-29
Moses had asked, and Pharaoh had said,
“No.”
Not only “No,” but “No AND I’m
going to make life even harder for the hundreds of thousands of your people who
are already slaves.”
So of course, Moses’ people turned
on him.
And the officers of the children of Israel . . ., as they came out from
Pharaoh, they met Moses and Aaron who stood there to meet them. And they said
to them, “Let the Lord look on you and judge, because you have made us
abhorrent in the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants, to put a
sword in their hand to kill us.” (Exodus 5: 19-21).
Keep in mind that Moses wasn’t “Moses” yet. He hadn’t parted any seas or called water out
of any rocks. Moses hadn’t seen manna or
the glory of God passing in front of him.
Moses hadn’t sung a song or preached a powerful sermon. He hadn’t even built up the courage to speak
directly to pharaoh. At this point,
Moses was a newly appointed preacher thrown into high stakes negotiations with
the most powerful and racially hostile world leader in his world, negotiations at
which Moses had clear and magnificently FAILED.
So Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Lord, why have You brought
trouble on this people? Why is it You have sent me? For since I
came to Pharaoh to speak in Your name, he has done evil to this people; neither
have You delivered Your people at all” (Exodus 6: 22-23).
Clearly this whole called-to-prophetic-ministry-and-social-justice-liberation
thing was a huge mistake. And he didn’t even
want to be a prophet. He’d had to leave
his wife, his sons, the only healthy father figure he’d ever known. He’d already almost died once.
Moses was --- DONE!
But the Lord told Moses to go
BACK to Pharaoh and make the exact same demands. Now, God has already told Moses:
But I am sure that the king of Egypt will
not let you go, no, not even by a mighty hand (Exodus 3: 19). But the same God was saying: “Now you shall see what I will
do to Pharaoh. For with a strong hand he will let them go, and with a strong
hand he will drive them out of his land” (Exodus 6: 1).
God was simultaneously promising failure AND victory.
In Exodus 6:2-8, the Lord gave Moses
a powerful sermon laying an historical and theological foundation for the promises
of liberation and prosperity. Moses received
an anointed Word about God’s redemptive plan, a mightily motivational message
encouraging the people to trust in the Lord!
That didn’t work either.
So Moses spoke thus to the children of Israel; but they did NOT heed
Moses because of anguish of spirit and cruel bondage (Exodus 6:9).
”Because of anguish of spirit and
cruel bondage” means that sometimes your people are in too much pain to process
good theology.
You still have to tell them, but more importantly, you have to SHOW THEM God working on their behalf.
Sometimes
serving God means advocating for people who ought to advocate for themselves
but are too broken and disheartened to stand with you. Sometimes you go alone to fight battles you
cannot win alone on behalf of people who will not fight alongside you.
And the Lord spoke to Moses,
saying, “Go in, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the children
of Israel go out of his land.” (Exodus 3:10 -11)
Moses responded just as frustrated
preachers have been responding ever since, “If my congregation won’t listen to
me, why should anybody else listen to me?
Clearly, Lord, I’m not as good at this as You think I am.”
"The children of Israel have not heeded me. How then shall Pharaoh heed me, for I am of uncircumcised lips?” (Exodus 3:12)
God frequently calls us into
situations where failure is certain but it isn’t to be cruel. It is to be strategic. Sometimes momentary failures are necessary for
ultimate victory. And, God is teaching
us not to define ourselves and our worth by our last battle. At any given moment you can be hard-pressed
on every side, perplexed, persecuted, and struck down (2 Corinthians 4:8-9) but
not be crushed by the pressure, not despair at the confusion, not destroyed by
the attacks, and never forsaken by your God.
You can lose and still be victorious.
God doesn’t guarantee victory to
the Christian who is always stronger than his/her opponent.
God guarantees victory to the
Christian who is faithful to the calling to face those opponents, even when
facing them leads to failure.
And you will be hated by all for my name's sake. But the one who
endures to the end will be saved (Mark 13:13).
God told Moses to go back to
Pharaoh and fail again because God was going to use that failure to deepen Moses’
spiritual power, to mature Moses’ relationships with the Lord, and to set the
ministry up for such a spectacular victory that we’re still writing blogs about
it 3,000+ years later.
So the Lord said to Moses: “See, I have made you as God to Pharaoh, and
Aaron your brother shall be your prophet. You shall speak all that I command you.
And Aaron your brother shall tell Pharaoh to send the children of Israel out of
his land. And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and multiply My signs and My
wonders in the land of Egypt. But
Pharaoh will not heed you, so that I may lay My hand on Egypt and bring My
armies and My people, the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great
judgments. And the Egyptians
shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch out My hand on Egypt and bring
out the children of Israel from among them.” Exodus 7:1-5).
If you’ve been called into
ministry (and every believer has in some way been called into ministry), and you’re
afraid that you’re going to fail, don’t worry.
You will.
When it happens, get up. Pray.
Refocus. And go fail again. Because if you’re truly obeying God, those initial
and intermittent failures are Divinely strategized set-ups for a victory of
Biblical proportions.
--Anderson T. Graves
II is a writer, community organizer and consultant for
education, ministry, and rural leadership development.
Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is
pastor of
Bailey Tabernacle CME
Church in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. He writes the popular blog:
A Word
to the Wise at
www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com
Support by check or money order
may be mailed to
Bailey Tabernacle CME Church
1117 23rd Avenue
Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35401
